Folding bed mechanism



Dec. 22, 1953 v. GIUSEFFI 2,663,032

' FOLDING BED MECHANISM Filed July 5, 1950 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 AA A 9,.m\\\\\ I I,

INVENTOR 'ATTO R N EY V. GIUSEFFI FOLDING BED MECHANISM Dec. 22, 1953Filed July 5, 1950 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 m fi 2 w M INyENTOR Vmceni 'luseffBY @nfliun ATTORNEY Patented Dec. 22, 1953 g afr tightly nou'gif wound.to oounterlgeklanoe the weight Of the' fraInE' along-with-their*h,1imattresses if the-met: tres'sesshouldzbeuremovedj efiglffor cleaning;thebed will automatical y "361d uw prqbaibly "quite unexpectedly;anmposle-iblyfwith' Harmful e 'siiltsi pri'se upper and morespringsirantanged "towopposei undesired. etiebtsazofeceritainfl-'ravitational; forces occurring. during a"foldingand-unfolding cycle doing so with an efictiveness which varies as" thema nitndesi of. tho'eesrefiect'sefor 1 different portions of. the-cycle;

Itiis axfurth''r objectitoiprovide sucha mech anism which willb'ewinherently stable; i. e;, will tend to flock eitheri its .ifolded"or unfolded. condition so that'theaction ofiits sprin'g arrangem'nt':will' be:relatively "independent of: certain likelysvariationsin weightsuchas that which would-be o'casioned byth'e removal o'f the mat-'trestes'f;

In general, these and other objects are attained by the use of;'on"-.-ormore pr'e loade'd. countersr irings which are arranged to opposegravitat tionll forces with' em= effierfl'livenes's which varies overth'e folding e ndmnfoldmg"cycle substam Y many asneeced;

"Irftl'iedrarlihg: V

Fig. 11" is e perspective view of "an embodiment Of thiS iIIVI'ItiOIF'22 fully unfolded Condition;

Fig? 2 -i's aj crtiss tioiiil View of th' embodimnt='ofEi;. Tithe-Viewbeing taken in the plane zLziofFig. or

Fig: 3 is se'ctioneglwiew 'tagken' in'aplane corre-= spondingtotriatifofii tHe' vieWofFigf 2 but with the embddime1it ofli igi 1' Is'howr'f'in a condition intermediate it's fulliz -unfoltleq' 'and ite flly foldeid conditions an'd' Fig. :4 is a noth'e'r*such 'sectional viewbut with the-meohanism in" ul'ly' fdlded'donditidnf iIheibed me'ohamsriiI P Shown" in Fig. 1 comower"11a;1'f -frames H andf] 2'; which are ao'ind' tg'ethjr with hing'es I3 as shown: E5 of th? helfl fritfis" I and Hisme'd'eof-foiif' 'leng'ths of "anglei'ronwelded. togethrto' foipm' 2; wrectangular recess into pfing niQ'ttreSS-maY be Thhel'f n mes- I I; I 2b'ywelding' gussets' i'n'e'rs: Apair'o'f legs half ;frame:1 2 :and got:Iastening .wheels' I 1 to the between therinsiiie surfaces of thlg'sfl5 to' per 'n ii l i edj en o e c of e half-frame ll when the bedmechanism i in its folded condition. This is best shown in Fig. 4.

The head end of the bed is supported on a pair of hinges I8. Each ofthese hinges has a first arm 19 which serves as a leg for the head endof the bed when it is unfolded and a second arm 20 which is providedwith a number of screw holes 2| for attaching the mechanism of the bedto a foundation surface 22 (Figs. 2-4) The foundation surface 22 may bethe floor of a cupboard (represented generally by dotted block 23 inFigs. 3 and 4) into which the bed is to be stored when folded, or thebottom of a credenza with which the folding mechanism shown in Fig. 1may be combined to afford the article of furniture described in myabove-mentioned copending application. It should be noted that themechanism shown in Fig. 1 will sometimes be an article of manufacturecomplete in itself as a builder's supply item, and that it does notnecassarily have to be merely a component part built into an article offurniture. For this reason, in the preferred embodiment shown in Fig. 1,certain anchor points which are needed for the counterspringarrangements herein are located on the hinge arms 25 rather than on thefoundation surface 22. Because of this, where the mechanism is to be acomplete article in itself, it will be possible to provide it with itscounterspring arrangement s fully preadjusted, i. e., with its (their)anchor points properly located and its (their) springs under propertension, and installation will require no more than simply screwing thehinge arms 28 to the intended foundation siuface.

The embodiment shown herein by way of illustration has two counterspringarrangements each of which comprises a flexible cable 24, e. g., a lightstranded steel cable or a nylon cable having a steel core, which has oneof its ends fastened to a hook eye 25 (a first anchor point) which iswelded to the top surface of the arm 20. Each of the cables 24 extendsthrough two pulleys, 26 and 21 respectively to a second anchor point.There its other end is fastened to the cross member 28,

of half frame [2 at one of several holes which may be selected inaccordance with the tension under which it is desired to place thecable.

Each of the pulleys 26 is hung from the under side of the cross member28 as best shown in Figs. 2 and 3. Preferably, the distance between eachof the pulleys 26 and the point on the cross member 28 from which ithangs is made variable to provide an adjustment which in practice hasproven very efiective for causing the folding mechanism I 0 to operatein the intended manner which is to be described below. However, incertain embodiments this distance may be fixed. For example, where aparticular embodiment is standardized for mass production so thatcertain parameters can be predetermined, e. g., the weights of itscomponent parts, the locations of the anchor points, and the amount ofspring tension, the distance between each of the pulleys 26 and thepoint on the cross member 28 from which it is hung can also bedetermined in advance and therefore it need not necessarily beadjustable. In embodiments for which this adjusting means is desired,each of the pulleys may be hung from the cross member 28 by any ofnumerous kinds of suitable suspensions of variable length. In thepresent example I show it hung on a short flexible cable the length ofwhich may be made adjustable in any suitable manner. In each of thecounterspring arrangements a coil spring 30 is 4 stretched between thehook eye 3| of its pulley 2i and a third anchor point 36. The thirdanchor points are located as shown in Fig. 1 near the back edge of thebottom cross member 32 of the half-frame I2. As is most apparent fromFig. 2, the tension of the springs 30 tends to draw the cross member 32toward an imaginary axis extending between the two hook eyes 25. Theeffect of using the pulley 21 in each counterspring arrangement is topermit the use of a spring 30 of approximately half the physical rangeof elasticity and twice the tensile force of a spring which would berequired without the use of a pulley.

t causes a short stifi spring to act in the same way as a long compliantspring, and, since the spring is under twice as much tension as thecable 24, it reduces the free lash of the counterspring arrangement in aregion where it can at least well be tolerated, i. e., in a region whereit passes close to the bottom of the box spring.

A handle 33 is attached to each side of halfframe 12 near one of thehinges I3. When an upward force is exerted on one or both of the handles33 in order to fold the mechanism [0, it will not be effective to raisethe head end of the half-frame ll inasmuch as this is fastened down bythe hinges I8. Nor will be it effective to raise the foot end inasmuchas far less force is required to buckle the center of the mechanism inan upward direction along the line of the pins of the hinges [3 than toraise the dead weight offered by the lower portion of the halfframe l2,the legs 55, the wheels 11, etc. As a result, an upward force on one orboth of the handles will start to jack-knife the two bed halves H and i2toward a position such as that shown in Fig. 3. This will greatlyincrease the effectiveness of the counterspring arrangements in opposinggravitational forces which tend to keep the mechanism It fiat and open.

The contractilev force which each of the two counterspring arrangementsexerts between the first and third anchor points along a line which isbroken due to the presence of the pulley 26, has a component which actsalong a straight line between those points and which diminishes to alimiting value of zero as the angle between the jack-knifed bed halves,ll, l2, becomes smaller and finally reaches zero degrees. At the sametime, the mechanical advantage of the two jackknifed bed halves totranslate a contractile force which is exerted in a straight linebetween the first and third anchor points into a force acting upwardlyat the juncture of the two half-frames increases as said angledecreases. Thus the eifectiveness of this mechanism to exert an upwardforce to oppose the free falling component of its own total weight isthe resultant of two oppositely changing variables. I have found thatthe way in which these variables combine to produce this resultant isafunction of the distance from the cross member 28 to each of thepulleys 26. By adjusting this properly, the overall effectiveness of thecounterspring arrangement(s) in opposing undesired gravitational forceswill vary to sufficiently but not excessively oppose the free fallingweight at all points in the folding-andunfolding cycle. When themechanism is fully unfolded so that the angle between the halfframes isonly a very slight upward force will be exerted. This force is so slightthat the weight of the frames with or without mattresses is suificientto keep the mechanism open. However, the forces stored in the springs 30have a very substantial effectivenessinan upward dl-.

' slasheroints mainly-a1 awasdaew sncwn z 7 am ure contractile" 1 al'dfithe stretcher etweefi eae eeieasfirseand as ea -cease as ts themechanism-' approaches its-fully tioni Thereroretowera chin iterspringafrang M essence in urgifig the halffran'ies t further jaclg-knifing.This averts' bangnig -to gthei o'f-th hair-nan APt use saifiil tiine,'1'." e., fie the 'cerhpltib of assessment-immense arraiigriientrsrbeome fiiereafieinsrs (in ective to pull together the two arms I9 and 20of chic 6f tney eme pnmasn ol menses he! frame merely ngsfi oriri-it ymeningesi It is apparent that when -one-seek's unfold this mechanism bytuning outward as "he dles 33, he will be assisted by the availability 7answerable1everage tspuu apart-tn arms" of the hinges again-st the" acneI of tl-ie counter string arrangements); Because- 0f-'-th-is"--it willbe easy-to pair-the" half-framesoiit fthe recess 23'; Theconsiderableleverage- (referred to) is avaiiabieseeacsethedistance orn ea'ch of 'thehandlest'the so much greatef than;fthlength ef the Vertical arrn- I-QE"Asa result; itis relatively easy to start the process of. unfolding evenif the spring 30 hay" been as greatly loaded masther'iiech'ariism It]will comp1ete1y-fo1d: itself: automatically once foldinggis merelystartedn Moreover, it wilLliker wise be easy tocomplete thlii'nfoldmgsIntact, apoint will, be reached tow/ant em of iir'ifoldiifigl'agt'which, of its 66th acco" it will'edr'opiithe 1 part, of thewaytheunyopefi position where it will remain as 'thoiigh'loked. It ispossible to adjust the counterspring mechanism(s) so that they justovercome the gravitational forces without having enough reserve left toovercome the friction in the hinge pins and other working parts of themechanism. As a result, when the mechanism It is in an intermediateposition, it will stay there unless a slight amount of force is exertedmanually to move it in either direction as desired.

It is apparent from the foregoing that during either folding orunfolding, the weight of the foot end of this mechanism is carried onthe wheels I! which roll along the foundation surface 22 inward towardthe recess 23 or outward from it as the case may be.

The lower half-frame I2 is somewhat shorter than the upper half-frame II so that the wheels I! are lifted away from the foundation surface 22when the angle between the bed halves has become very small. Uponcontinuation of folding beyond that point, the lower half-frame simplyhangs on the upper half-frame, from the hinges l3.

Provision is made for the eventuality that one may carelessly reach intothe recess 23 and draw out the mechanism without use of the handles 33,for example, by pulling on the upper halfframe. If this is done, thereis the possibility that without an enlargement of the angle between thehalf-frames, the two of them as a still tightly-jack-knifed unit maybegin to swing outward on the axis of the pins of hinges 18 to a 6 vpoint whcm the foohzend ofi'thwluwenhadfi-framcz (or'aaboxspringamattresszcarrimmmitb'- willgbinda onithe foundatiorrisurfacezrToaavoidithisgaipain ofl rollersifl areicanriefii om'rthes: outsidee'surface' of- 'tlic cross-membernz Ac-thevpointimentionediimmediately:abovetitheyiwillibear slideably upon' me foundation. surfacetc prevent bindingaor reiduce-the likelihoodthereofi If I desired; eachcounterspring arrangement may: utilize: another pulley which hung fromthe headend cross membergofithetcpihalf frame tb-rediiwtlie-spacing=between the cable wand'the bottom of thi's cnoss member: willlessen the likelihood of the cable Zflb'eingseen from" tl'ie siisle -ofthe bede Each sucl-lad'ditional pulley ma consist of a smalfwheel (notshown carried masher-t shaft mountedacrosstheuppenend of the slot 31(See' Fig; l whieh is prcvided a-' respec'ti veoneor thehinge-arms W toavoid blocking the path for the-cable 21 between the pulley 26 and thehook eye 25. If such wheels-are respectivel'y-mouhted mthearms l 9their-slots 31 will not need to: extenct'as far toward their-hinge pinsas do the"-slbt's31=shown in'Fig; 1.

While in the illustratlve embodiment shown herein provisionis made f'o'radjusting; the tension of each of thecounterspring arrangements throughthe use ef -a plurality' ofholesanyone of which may be selected. toserve asits second arrchor' point; it is obvious: that one may'use anyofa variety of other snitable means For ex;- ample,a.turmbuckle;may'beinsertedjn'series in each of thecountersprm'g;arrangements,,e. g,, be,,- tween the root, enctoffitsjspringgii,lli'andiimithird anchor point 36*.

Whatis claimediszv l A folding bed mechanism. suitable; for. use on. avrelatively, flatioundation. surface comprismg: upper and! lower.halt-frames each having two side members i andifa. top. andgbcttom crossmember joined; to define,a;plane, corresponding to the underside of a.halt mattress; hinging means articulately connecting the top crossmember of the lower half frame to the bottom cross member of the upperhalf frame so that in folding and unfolding said mechanism the halfframes may be moved relatively to each other between two limitingpositions in one of which said planes are mutual extensions of eachother and in the other of which they are closely adjacent and parallel;means for articulately anchoring the top end of the upper half framewith respect to a predetermined part of said foundation surface so thatsaid plane defined by the sides of this half frame may be moved about anaxis parallel to its top cross member between a position parallel to thefoundation surface when the mechanism is unfolded and one substantiallyperpendicular to said surface when the mechanism is folded; meansaifording at least one anchor point near to said predetermined part ofthe foundation surface; one leg attached at its top end to each of theside members of the lower half-frame near to its bottom cross member;one wheel carried on the other end of each leg; at least onecounterspring-arrangement means for exerting a variable contractileforce directly between said anchor point and a part of said lowerhalf-frame near its bottom cross member to variably urge the twohalf-frames toward the limiting position in which they are closelyadjacent to each other, the

" last-mentioned means including a spring coupled under tension, a cablecoupled to an end of the;

spring for coupling said end to said anchor point, for attaching one endof said cable being attached to said anchor point, said anchor pointbeing located near to a portion of said surface which is more closelyadjacent to the top cross member of said upper half-frame when themechanism is unfolded than to any of the other cross members, and apulley-like cable-carrying means hung from one of thearticulately-connected cross members and carrying said cable strungthrough it; whereby in all positions of the mechanism intermediate saidtwo limiting positions the force along the cable is exerted along abroken line which has an apex at said pulley-like meansand saidcontractile force as directly exerted in a substantially straight linebetween said anchor point and said last-mentioned part of the lowerhalfframe varies in magnitude as the upper and lower half-frames aremoved between their two limit- .ing positions.

2. A folding bed mechanism as in claim 1 in which said means forarticulately anchoring the top end of the upper half -frame comprises ahinge having two arms each having one of its ends articulately joined toa corresponding end of the other at a hinge pin, one of said arms beingattached at its other end to the top end of the upper half frame toserve as a leg therefor when the mechanism is unfolded, and the other ofsaid arms being provided with means by which it may be attached to saidfoundation surface.

3. A folding bed mechanism as in claim 2 in which said means affordingat least one anchor point is integral with'said last-mentioned arm ofsaid hinge.

4. A folding bed mechanism as in claim 3 in which the path of said cablebetween said cablecarrying means and said anchor point extends in such adirection with respect to the path to be followed by the first-mentionedhinge arm with respect to the second in the folding of the mech anismthat said means for exerting a contractile force is effective to holdthe hinge shut when the mechanism is folded and the half-frames havetheir second-mentioned limiting positions.

5. A folding bed mechanism as in claim 1 in which the lower half -frameis of such length that when it is suspended by its top cross member fromthe upper half-frame in the fully folded condition of the mechanism itslower cross member is raised a substantial distance away from a planecorresponding to that of said foundation surface.

6. A folding bed mechanism as in claim 1 which further comprises atleast one roller carried on the bottom surface of the bottom crossmember of the lower half-frame.

7. A folding bed mechanism as in claim 1 in which said means forexerting a contractile force includes a means for adjusting the loadingof said spring.

8. A folding bed mechanism as in claim 1 in which said means forexerting a variable contractile force includes a means which isadjustable in length by which said pulley-like means is hung from saidone of the articulately-connected cross members at an adjustabledistance therefrom.

9. A folding bed mechanism as in claim 1 in which each of said means forexerting a contractile force includes a pulley arrangement foreffectively dividing by a predetermined constant the contractile forceexerted by said spring along said broken line while at the same timemultiplying by the same constant its contractible range as usefullyexerted along said line.

VINCENT GIUSEFFI.

References Cited in the file of this patent .UNITED STATES PATENTSNumber Name Date 93,556 Robinson Aug. 10, 1869 963,789 Merrill July 12,1910 1,726,075 Kolb Aug. 27, 1929 2,544,762. Lochridge Mar. 13, 1951

